DiMeraFan67, the acting during the hotel scene with John, Marlena and Brady gave me a flashback to how Dee and Drake acted sometimes during the Lagan contrived way out-from-left-field story line of Brady hating Marlena when Kyle Lowder first came on the show. I've been getting a similar vibe from the DHs during that time and today.

I love them, but it seems like they are not willing to play ball with this story. I would call it unprofessional if it were other people, but they have earned the right to be shown a little respect. The story is horrible for those two.

I didn't really have a significant issue with the acting that day per se (keeping in mind that it's be hard for Eric and Drake to do much worse than what I expect). I mean, EM and Drake were the same as always and Deidre didn't have anything to do anyway. That's more my issue. Why give the meat of the story to Drake and Eric and leave Deidre standing in the background and Eileen talking to herself and and the characters in the other weak story? But my biggest issue with the show right now is that none of the relationships make any sense. They have managed to throw a bunch of couples and friendships and alliances together without really working through any obstacles and making sure to ignore their histories and basicslly just skipping the drama all the way around. All the improved dialogue in the world doesn't make these things make sense. There is something off with all of the actors, though, and I'm not sure what it is. Maybe I could pinpoint it if I could sit through an entire episode, but they're all over the place. The acting issues I had this week were more with people like James and Freddie. It's not so much that it was bad, it just didn't fit. Everything I saw Wednesday and Thursday was more like a stand alone vignette than an episode of a serial drama.

This is my problem too, but it's not surprising. They have SC and MR as the lead romantic couple of the show, neither of whom are able to make the story feel remotely likable. They have Maggie as the matriach of the show, and SR, who used to be good at playing the understated and real (I loved when she told the support group about her attack in 86, beautiful work), is now seemingly unable. NB is delightful and lovable as a person, but she's never been the strongest actress on the show, and Chloe has never been the real villain, which is what they're painting her as.

And in this ridiculous Kristen, Brady, John & Marlena story, it's like they just wrote a story for a really horrific porn movie, took out some of the porn, replaced that with dialogue between two other characters, and just put the four names there at random. They seem to think adding Isabella's name gives them credit for history, which it doesn't. They think having Kristen and Marlena spar at each other does the same, and it doesn't - because the story is at a stand still. Nothing is actually happening. Marlena is sitting in a coffee house or standing in a town square, and Deidre Hall is relegated to being the talk-to, we're forced to watch some random paw at Marlena's married self, while the other two get to do the little story-forwarding stuff. And they're BAD. It's so obvious Drake has no clue who this dude is, and Eric, I haven't seen much, but that is not Brady Black as one would envision him being John Black's son and raised by Marlena and John together. Brady should be more like Eric, thoughtful and wanting to work things out for everyone. (While John is certainly hot headed at times, he tends to reserve it to DiMera-related things. Brady's acting like a petulant two year old, directed at his parents. And he was raised by Marlena, too, and she's not particularly hot headed.) Meanwhile Eric, despite being Marlena's flesh and blood, having been abandoned by his father, going through all the shit with Nicole years ago (another form of abandonment), would be more likely to be the wounded non-hero.